Air strikes kill civilians in Syria’s Deir Az Zor

Damascus, Syrian and Russian air strikes have killed at least 47 people, including 31 civilians, in an ISIL-held town in eastern Syria, a monitor has said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that Saturday’s raids hit the town of Al Qurayyah in Deir Az Zor province.

At least 31 civilians were identified among those killed, but it was not immediately clear whether the 16 others were civilians or fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), Abdel Rahman said.

“IS fighters have now set up a security perimeter around the residential area, where the town’s mosque is located,” said Abdel Rahman, using a different acronym for ISIL.